Updates from Leslie
Jan: 08: I must say, it's been tremendous fun working on the first series of the animated kid's show "Kid Vs Kat" (YTV/Studio B) over the fall. Great to work with Story Editors Robert Pincombe and Shelly Hoffman on that.
"DEBT-THE MUSICAL" Last spring, with kind assistance from Playwrights Theatre Centre we had a very successful workshop production. We are looking forward to the Premier Production tentatively slated by the Firehall Arts Centre, Vancouver sometime in the next season or two. Check out the video clips from the last "workshop production" at the "Debt-The Mu$ical Page".
NOV '07: "COMING UP FOR AIR" Just had a VERY successful remount! First at Theatre UBC where it helped re-launch the newly renovated Dorothy Somerset Studio. Following this, CUFA was the very first production for the INAUGURAL Theatre Season at ArtSpring Arts Centre on Saltspring Island - standing ovations and rave reviews. The team came away very happy!
AXIS THEATRE (creators of the international hit "The Number 14") have approached me to write a King Arthur project for them: "King Arthur's Kitchen" for 08/09. This is for a cross-Canada tour. Here's the SYNOPSIS:
-KING ARTHUR'S KITCHEN-
The mythical castle of CAMELOT: A great feast is being prepared for King Arthur and his courageous Knights of The Round Table. The grandest of medieval fare is on offer - from fish festooned in flowers, to roasted Peacock in a bed of pig's trotters. But, while the high-spirited Knights - Lancelot and Galahad among them - "carouse" in the Great Hall, down in the Kitchen...it's another story...Noble Knights in gleaming crested armor, may have distinguished themselves
by defending their ladies and King's honour with feats of chivalry and bravery - but what about the unseen common folk who cooked, cleaned, sewed and polished for them? Welcome to King Arthur's Kitchen!
Below stairs, Roderick the Servant, Bronwyn the Kitchen Maid and no-nonsense, seen-it-all Cook - spin their own take on the Arthurian Legends: Boy Arthur apprenticing to the powerful (yet, slightly "dotty") Merlin; Young Man Arthur's encounters with the (tad jealous) Nimue, Lady of The Lake and guardian of Excalibur; Rightful King Arthur's challenge with the Sword in The Stone... and, half-sister and (VERY 'tetchy') Morgana Le Fay's wicked attempts to steal the crown for herself and... "romance" the clueless Lancelot while she's at it...are all re-interpreted by the humble kitchen staff, utilizing whatever twelfth-century kitchen-ware than can get their hands on! All this - while constantly keeping the multitude of courses rolling for the hungry horde of Knights above them.
When none of the kitchen staff can remove the knife mysterious embedded in the King Arthur's specially prepared Honey Cake - they suspect there's more to these 'tall tales' of magic spun by the self-important Knights, than meets the eye!
- King Arthur's Kitchen will be workshopped the week of June 16 -20th in Vancouver. I'm very excited to get going on this one! The show will be start touring in January '09.
WHISTLER-BLACKCOMB PROJECT! I've been commissioned by Millennium Place/Whistler Theatre Projects to write the script for a multi-media, theatrical project celebrating the 'Living History' of Whistler - working title "MountainHeart". We're at the early stages, but this is a project designed for the 2010 Olympics and beyond. More about this as we move ahead!
'MISS ME' in Los Angeles? LA based character actor Wayne Yorke is very busy trying to get a production of my play MISS ME going there sometime early 2008.